This is the second entry in a series covering some of the Coming-of-Age practices historical societies expected from their sons.
The bulk of this material is taken from HistoryCollection.com's 18 Memorable Coming-of-Age Rituals from History.
In Ancient Rome, getting a plain white toga was a big deal. The Toga virilis (quite literally 'the toga of manhood') was given to a boy at around the age of 12 or 13. However, it was reserved for freeborn males, not slaves. As boys, young Roman citizens would don the toga praetexta, with purple stripes adorning the plain white cloth. Only when a boy became a man would he be able to ditch those stripes. Once he got his Toga virilis, a free young man would enjoy all the rights that came with adult male citizenship of Rome, though he would assume the responsibilities that came with the privilege as well.
Perhaps the most famous reference to the togas of boys and men can be found in the accounts of Julius Caesar’s private life. According to the ancient sources, the future leader married his first wife Cossutia before he had even assumed the toga of manhood. As soon as the young Caesar was permitted to wear his Toga virilis, he ditched his spouse. No reason was given for the divorce, though it was almost certainly done for political reasons. After that, Cossutia disappears from the records for good. Caesar, meanwhile, made full use of the advantages that came with the adult toga and set off on his pursuit of total power.
Each March, the Romans would celebrate The Liberalia, a festival dedicated to Liber Pater, the ancient god of both wine and fertility. Like many Roman festivals, it was a suitably debauched affair, with copious amounts of drinking, eating and dancing. But it had a serious purpose too. It was used to mark the transition from boyhood to manhood – albeit only for children of freedmen and women. At the start of the celebration, boys of 15 or 16 would wear their bulla praetexta, charms made out of gold or leather and worn around the neck. They would then take these off and place them on an alter, offering them up as a gift to the Lares, the Roman gods of the family and home.
Once they had given up their bulla praetexta, the boys could finally don their adult togas. They were officially men of Rome, and had a wealth of privileges, including the right to own slaves and to vote. Like mothers of all ages, proud Roman moms would often collect their sons’ bulla praetexta from the alter at the end of the party and keep them for sentimental reasons. Or perhaps for superstitious reasons – it was said that, if a young man grew to be so successful that he was given a public triumph, the bulla would guard him against jealous evil spirits.
Not mentioned in the HistoryCollection.com article is the elaborate system of religious, military, and political offices Roman men of a certain rank were expected to advance through. These offices tied social rank to state service or the enforcement of piety and helped to keep the entire Roman system on track. Most of these offices were developed in the Monarchical or Republican eras of Roman history and were distorted by the emperors on behalf of their heirs. Sons of the Roman aristocracy were guided through the ground-level roles by their fathers.
In the early days of Roman history military service was restricted to free farmers who were expected to provide their own arms and march off in the defense of Rome when needed. Their sons would have been familiar with arms and hunting from a young age.
The increasing informality of the last century means that clothing doesn't demonstrate a division between childhood and adulthood as in Roman times. It can be a method of showing whether or not a person is serious.
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